Does social media control what we buy?

Hello everyone, my name is Farah and I have created this blog in relation to my Industrial Investigation coursework at college. The investigation is about how different social media platforms are affecting our buying habits. Does the power of the digital world influence what product we desire? Today, there is 2.3 billion active social media users- friends communicating, students researching, businesses marketing- all over the world, easily, quickly, and conveniently. It’s almost become a part of our daily routines- flicking through Facebook while having breakfast or tweeting while commuting to work. It gives individuals the freedom of speech and does that power influence thousands of people today? Each of my blog posts will consist of an analysis on different social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Blogs and how they can easily influence our perception on products which leads to a purchase. I will investigate both the power of an individual such as freelance bloggers or fan pages as well as small/large scale businesses in influencing our buying habits. Recent statistics show that 91% of retail brands use 2 or more social networking sites- this is starting to become the main way businesses communicate with its customers as the use of technology has widened dramatically as time goes on. Companies such as ASOS rely on the digital world solely to remain successful as they sell products directly through the warehouse and don’t run any standalone stores- this means that they must market effectively through social networking sites to ensure that they are not easily forgotten about. Companies use promotions such as discount codes or unbeatable offers like Buy One Get One Free which makes us feel we can’t miss out on and entices us to purchase products- even though we may not even need them. Sales are the best way for retailers to entice us as we feel the reduced prices of products are something we cannot bypass. On the other hand, individuals can influence our habits just as much or even more, fan pages and bloggers can start to make us look up to individuals as role models and therefore what they like we may want, for example fashion bloggers will constantly post pictures and posts on the latest fashion trends and they’re ideal outfits with links on where we can purchase the outfit from- this entices us as not only do we see the outfit we desire but the quick and easy link to take us straight to where we can purchase it from becomes far too convenient. In reality, the digital world consumes us as it is a part of our daily lives, marketing companies are spending more than 20% of their advertising budget on social media platforms today as the power of social media continues to rapidly expand, Without technology social media would be limited, the increasing use of technology allows social media to become a massive part of our lives- our phones are almost glued to us every single day- allowing brands and individuals to have the power to easily convince us of our desires. Look out for my next post- Facebook, the biggest social networking site we use today- and its power to influence our perception on products.